In a serious effort to clear misperceptions about SEZs being a big land scam, the Board of Approval for SEZs today set forth list of authorised operations for building social infrastructure within the various SEZs and criteria for developers to qualify for tax breaks.

At its meeting under the Chairmanship of the Special Secretary in the Commerce Ministry, Mr G.K. Pillai, the board also gave in-principle nod to 14 SEZs, taking the total number of SEZs approved so far to 164. Out of this, 25 SEZs have been notified.

The proposals include a multi-product SEZ spread over 2,086 hectares to be developed by Maharasthra Aiport Development Company Ltd in Nagpur and two IT SEZs by DLF in Gurgaon (Haryana) and Hyderabad.

Real estate builder Parsvnath would develop IT SEZs in Dehradun and Indore, while the Welspun Group would promote a specialised textile SEZ in Gujarat.

Speaking to newspersons, Mr Pillai said that it has been decided to prescribe minimum investment or net worth of the promoter company in the SEZs.

Accordingly, sector-specific SEZ developers must plough in a minimum investment of Rs 250 crore or have net worth of Rs 50 crore.

In the case of multi-product SEZs, over and above these facilities, authorised area of activities for which approvals would be granted include port, airport, air cargo complex, inland container depot, banks, golf courses and recreational facilities including club house, indoor/outdoor games and gymnasium.

Developers of sector-specific SEZs can build a maximum of 7,500 houses, a 100-room hotel, a 25-bed hospital, and have office space, retail stores and multiplexes up to 50,000 sq m, while a multi-product SEZ developer can build a maximum of 25,000 houses, a 250-room hotel, a 100-bed hospital and office space, retail stores and multiplexes of 200,000 sq m.

He added that these could be approved in stages only.

(This article was published in the Business Line print edition dated September 22, 2006)

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